Betrayal of American Values

BETRAYAL OF AMERICAN VALUES -- (House of Representatives - September 20, 2005)

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Brown) is recognized for 5 minutes.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, for too long we have borne witness to relentless attacks on America's poor and working families. Abandoned by corporate America, betrayed by the political right, largely ignored by the mainstream media, our Nation's poor have become little more than an afterthought, most recently evidenced by what we saw in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

While productivity is up in this country, while profits are up in this country, wages are falling, and poverty is increasing. Since 1973, not coincidentally the year that America went from a trade surplus into a trade deficit, since 1973 the average worker has seen her wages or his wages go up about 10 percent in real dollars while that worker's productivity has increased about ninety percent. Productivity up ninety percent, wages up only 10 percent.

It used to be in this country since World War II that when productivity went up, workers' wages went up roughly the same amount. And this is the key, that workers shared in the wealth they created for their employers. So productivity jumped up 90 percent, wages went up only 10 percent, profits skyrocketed for employers. Workers have not shared in the wealth they create.

An August census report revealed around the same time as Hurricane Katrina that in the United States the number of uninsured Americans has increased dramatically as has the number of families living below the poverty line; 1.1 million Americans dropped into poverty in 2004 alone, 2 million more Americans enrolled in Medicaid that year. Yet in the face of growing poverty and the rising number of uninsured Americans, this administration and Republican leadership are demanding that we cut $10 billion, that is billion with a B, $10 billion from Medicaid.

Think about that again. More and more people need Medicaid, not just because of Katrina but because of layoffs, because of plants closings like Michigan, in my State of Ohio, other places, because more and more employers are dropping their coverage. The congressional response is cutting Medicaid by $10 billion so that the President and Republican leadership can give tax cuts to the wealthiest 1 percent of people in this country.

Think about that. That is a choice. We give tax cuts to the wealthy, more tax cuts to the wealthiest 1 percent. The way to pay for it is to cut Medicaid by $10 billion. That is a choice that politicians and elected officials made. Give tax cuts to the wealthiest people. Cut programs like Medicaid that really matter for people who have lost their jobs, for the working poor, for people that have suffered from Katrina, for all the reasons that people have been down on their luck.

Household incomes fell for the fourth year in a row in 2004, something that has not happened since the Depression. In every segment of the American society except for the very wealthy, every segment has seen income decline in the last 5 years. America's men and women working full-time, the recent productivity is up; but they are not sharing in the wealth they create.

The number of people living in poverty increased by 1.1 million people. The infant mortality rate in this country is rising. The infant mortality rate in Washington, DC, is twice the infant mortality rate in Beijing. The infant mortality rate in this country went up last year for the first time since 1958. Our Nation cannot survive as a thriving democracy under policies that rely on trickle down economic theories.

Now, 2 weeks ago President Bush signed an executive order that will allow companies that win Federal no-bid contracts, Halliburton, Bechtel, some of the other friends of the President's and the Vice-President's, his executive order will allow those companies to pay less than the prevailing wage. We give them unbid contracts and huge profits, as they have had in Iraq. They will have these huge contracts in Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama; and yet they are exempt from paying the prevailing wage.

When government should be in its most proactive to ensure the return of a thriving economy, this administration is actively working to lower wages. The community hit hardest by Katrina is the working poor. These men and women will literally do the heavy lifting and the rebuilding of Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi. Yet the President is saying, Cut their wages.

Cheating workers out of fair wages robs them of the ability to take ownership in their community. The goal should be to put wealth in those communities from people that are working and rebuilding those communities. One must ask why the President would depress wages for a community in crisis. Cutting wages for people who are struggling to rebuild their lives is a betrayal of American values. The President of the United States should know better.

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